TOWN ATTORNEY SAYS TRUCK FIRM NOISE LEGAL

Residents who complained to Phillipsburg Town Council recently about noise from a trucking company on Broad Street may not have much legal recourse, town attorney T. Scott Ferguson said this week.

The complaints concerning GTS, which have been heard occasionally at council meetings during the past year, were voiced most recently on May 6. At that time, Mayor Paul Rummerfield asked Ferguson to determine whether the town can regulate the amount of noise and dust that can come from the property.

Ferguson told council this week, "Without a doubt, (the company) is able to conduct truck maintenance in that garage 24 hours a day. If that may constitute a nuisance, in your mind or in someone else's mind, I think you are without a remedy."

GTS operates in a residential area, but was granted a variance in the 1970s.

Even though the company appears to be within its rights, council directed Town Manager Peter Miller to have Zoning Officer Nat Moschini visit the site to see if the variance is being violated.

Councilman Daniel Duckworth said Moschini should not visit only from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but also sometimes at 2 a.m., when area residents say they have trouble sleeping because of the noise from the company.

Mayor Paul Rummerfield said the monitoring should take place over an extended period of time, and Councilman Christopher Wameling suggested 10 visits per month.

Council also said it would review at its work session on Tuesday an ordinance governing food-handling and amusement game licenses and expects to have first reading of an amendment to the ordinance at its June 3 meeting. What will be contained in that amendment, however, has not been determined.

Several business owners have complained that they were assessed penalties for failure to pay for the licenses by March 1.

Under the ordinance, the fees for the licenses are doubled if payment is not received by March 1. But merchants had complained that they were not notified, as they were in past years, that payment was due.

Duckworth said the ordinance should state explicitly that no notices will be mailed, while other council members say notices should be mandated and the penalties refunded.

Ferguson said that if council decides to forgive the penalties for those business people who complained, the only way to do so is to include all of the businesses that paid them in the year the notice was not mailed.